A field historically used by the poor of Newbury to gather fuel looks set to make a return to a similar use.
Planners are likely to approve a solar farm at Poors Field – to put up 6,000 panels on the site at Spring Gardens, Andover Drove, Wash Water.
But this time, it’s not the poor who benefit from the field, but an energy company called Calleva Community Energy which has submitted the application.
The field is owned by Enborne Parish Field Charity which wants the solar farm in place to ‘generate electricity and reduce the carbon footprint of the parish’.
The application has been recommended for approval at next week’s West Berkshire Council western area planning committee (Wednesday, May 22) despite 63 people objecting to the scheme for a range of reasons including increased risk of flooding to properties to the south of the field due to panels and concrete bases increasing runoff.
“I strongly object to this proposal, having a solar farm so close to a residential area with limited health risk studies, the solar panels contain perovskites solar cells these placed over a large area of this field and for long period,” wrote Janet Rich.
“Have they been fully tested and will they be properly maintained as failure could lead to to leakage of a toxic material into soil?
“This could lead to long-term damage to a good quality agricultural farm land with implications to the wildlife and residents.
“The question of proper maintenance of the site has not been fully answered.
“This field is good to moderate arable farm land and should be kept for agriculture, the wildlife it supports will be disturbed, including the birds and deer.”
Others say it would take away land for the community to use, as it was originally intended for and there is not enough weight given to historic significance of the site as the Enborne Parish Poor’s Allotment.
The applicants advise the council that Poors Field was historically used to provide fuel for the poor of the parish of Enborne.
Eleven others supported the scheme – saying it was good for the environment.
Approximately 11m of existing hedgerow will need to be removed to create the proposed access and new hedgerow is to be installed where the existing access is located.
It is proposed to gap up and maintain the existing hedgerows along the boundaries of Poors Field to a height of 3m.
Additional trees are proposed to be planted in the southwestern and southeastern corners of the application site as well as along the northern boundary, together with a small native species copse.
If the plans are approved, the solar farm will be on the site for 40 years.
